Anna Dressed in Blood (Anna, #1) in Pick-a-Shelf

Oct 11, 2011 Erin Ashley rated it liked it

Shelves: paranormal, horror, ghosts

Just to be clear, this book gets a 3 and a half star rating. Lately I have been giving strange ratings but I can't help it when I pick up a book that makes me very indecisive about whether I liked it or not.

When reading this book I kept thinking of the show 'Supernatural' only because this boy hunts ghosts and things that go bump in the night. The comparison stops there because 1, with the exception of 'Supernatural', I don't see a 16-17 year old boy doing what he does and having his mother be o Just to be clear, this book gets a 3 and a half star rating. Lately I have been giving strange ratings but I can't help it when I pick up a book that makes me very indecisive about whether I liked it or not.

When reading this book I kept thinking of the show 'Supernatural' only because this boy hunts ghosts and things that go bump in the night. The comparison stops there because 1, with the exception of 'Supernatural', I don't see a 16-17 year old boy doing what he does and having his mother be okay with it after losing her husband to the same profession. And 2, while his attitude towards his profession and trying to avenge his father is typical of a teenager, at times it seemed a little far fetched.

What I absolutley couldn't stand at all was how much swearing was going on by Cas. He is a teen, I get it, but his language is absolutely appalling. It really needed to be toned down and used only when necessary. It just made me frown everytime he swore for no good reason. What else I didn't like was how it seemed Cas had suddenly fallen for a ghost girl, Anna. Now, I am all for a bizarre relationship choice, I think there have been many different pairings that have been explored before (some over done) and I love the pairing of a human with a ghost. The idea of not being able to touch or anyone else see the ghost or however it is to be interpretated is something I enjoy, but in this book the pairing had no effect on me. I thought Anna was a sweet girl, for a dead girl who had previously been tearing people apart and leaving their intestines on the floor. She is by far a lot more interesting than Cas. I found Cas to be a really good character at times and then a real pain in the ass. Thomas was a great character, he was like a loyal sidekick. Carmel was a nice girl and then sometimes had her real bitchy side, so I guess having her conflicted was the right thing to do for this story, it gave her a lot more depth than I originally thought she would have had.

What I will rate this book highly on is the fact that reading it at night was probably not a good idea at times. Certain images that were conjured up while reading were ones that I would have preferred to have read while in the daylight, so my bad! The scenes of Anna pulling people apart and disemboweling her victims were vivid and memorable. It has been a long time since I have read something like that that gave me some truly horrific images. The writing flowed quite well also, it was really easy to read and understand the whole way through.

So I am still a little confused on where I lie with this book. I liked it for certain reasons and I disliked it for other reasons also. I think this book for me is going to remain one of those that I will sit on the fence for. I can't love it, but I can't hate it either. For me it needed some tweaking, a little more originality and seeing as the author wanted to add that romantic element between ghost and human, the romance needed to be more believable. I don't know whether I would recommend this book to anyone in particular. It's not a bad book, but I think it is one that you just have to judge for yourself. If you enjoy ghosts, supernatural hunters and witchcraft then you might enjoy this. ...more

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Sep 21, 2012 Heather Adkins rated it it was amazing

HOLY HADES, how do I even review this book?

For starters, I bow down in pure idolization of Ms. Blake. This book was incredible -- her writing style is f*ing fantastic. The imagery, the characters, the horror scenes...I couldn't put this book down. I read it in two sittings, completely immersed in this world she has created.

The writer's imagination is vivid. I love the way ghosts aren't always translucent; I love the way ghosts can harm people, even kill them (personally, this is because I don't ...more

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